Serum pattern of different molecular forms of prolactin during normal human pregnancy.

In this study, the molecular heterogeneity of prolactin was analysed in serum from normal women throughout pregnancy. Lectin affinity chromatography and denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing and non-reducing conditions, followed by Western blotting and immunostaining were used to resolve and identify the molecular variants of prolactin. During the first trimester, large molecular forms (64 and 53 kDa) and those corresponding to glycosylated and non-glycosylated prolactin (25 and 23 kDa, respectively) were present either under reducing or non-reducing conditions. The 64 and 23 kDa were the predominant species at this stage of gestation. As pregnancy progressed, the 64 kDa variant, which did not bind to concanavalin A, decreased until disappeared at the third trimester of gestation. The unbound/bound ratio of serum prolactin to concanavalin A increased only at the third trimester; however, the relative proportions of concanavalin A-bound prolactin did not show statistically significant changes along the gestational period. The results demonstrated the occurrence of changes in the heterogeneity of prolactin during gestation and further confirmed previous observations that various forms of non-glycosylated prolactin are indeed the predominant species in serum from normal women throughout pregnancy.